This won’t go down well with Twitter lovers. Everyone’s favorite microblogging service is experimenting with a new version of its Android app that removes @ replies entirely, hinting at the possibility that it will phase out the communications feature it has become synonymous with.

Schiller has since played down her comments, but a screenshot from the alpha version of Twitter for Android suggests that @ replies may be for the chop in favor of Facebook-like mentions, although it is only an experiment at this point and there is no suggestion that regular @ mentions are affected.

The thinking behind the change is that Twitter ‘scaffolding’ puts new users off, and makes it hard to understand and use the service — it seems certain that loyal users will disagree, and would likely protest against such changes, even if they are merely cosmetic as this one could prove to be.